Closing Bell - Closing Bell Overtime: Stocks Stage Midday Turnaround; Oracle Leads Software Pop 4/13/26

Episode Date: April 13, 2026

Our Seema Mody breaks down strength in Oracle and the broader software space. Julian Emanuel of Evercore ISI joins explains what the latest developments mean for markets and how investors should be thinking about positioning. Helima Croft of RBC Capital Markets explains whether the U.S. is more insulated than other regions and what the next move in crude could be. In financials Jason Goldberg of Barclays analyzes Goldman’s earnings and what it could signal for the broader banking sector. Benchmark’s Cody Acree weighs whether Intel’s recent run marks a real turnaround even amid ongoing geopolitical noise. Mizuho’s Jared Holz breaks down trends in pharma dealmaking. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The bell is bringing an end to the trading day at the NYSC Diversified Energy, ringing the bell and at the Nazak. Universal display doing the honors. Welcome to closing bell overtime, live from Studio B at the Nazak market site. I'm Melissa Lee, Mike Santoli, is off today. Sox gaining today, as President Trump says, Iran wants to make a deal, closing near the highs of the session. The Dow up nearly 300 points, the S&P 500, gaining 1% and recovering everything it has lost during the Iran war. The Nazak's stretching its winning streak to nine sessions.

There hasn't been a longer streak in nearly five years. Our market team is covering all the angles of what is moving, including a huge jump for Oracle, swings and oil prices, and of course, the latest from the White House. Also in our radar are a big move for one biotech. Could it be an acquisition target? And a look at how the oil spike is affecting food prices. And we'll keep people out of the restaurants. Plus, we'll trade William Sonoma as the stock gets an upgrade today.

But we begin today with more on today's action. Christina Parts Nevelis is standing by with that. Christina. Well, Melissa, markets really held steady with investors getting used to this pattern, you know, sharp escalations tied to the administration's foreign policy, followed by some form of negotiation or walkback. And so the market keeps betting this all works out. The

S&P 500 closing up about 1% the NASDAQ also similar move, getting a lift from software names like Oracle Palantir, both bouncing from Friday weakness. The Dow up about half a percent dragged down by Goldman Sachs. The stock fell after the bank missed big on fixed income trading.

The rest of the report, though, was really solid. Financial, still the second best performing S&P sector today. JPMorgan City, Wells Fargo. They're all set to post their earnings tomorrow morning. Intel, continuing its tear up over 50% over a nine-day winning street, so it's not just the NASDAQ with nine days, the best run on record for the stock since it went public in 1971.

Share is soaring after partnerships announced with Google, Elon Musk-Therapab project as well. And speaking of partnerships, Corwe've also added to the last week's 24% gain on the back of multiple AI infrastructure deals. And then lastly, we have Dell. and HP, both closing higher. Della over 6% on NVIDIA M&A speculation.

Also, HP, you could see up about 5% in either company have commented. All right, Christina, thanks. Christina Partsenevolous. Software also getting a nice rebound today, led by Oracle. Sima Modi's been following that for us. Sima. Hey, Melissa, Oracle, leading the rebound in tech, the company revealing a new suite of AI tools geared towards

the utility sector. It follows a price target raise from analysts at Stevens, but traders mostly chalk up the move today to short covering. The stock any higher by nearly 13% its best days in September 10th when it popped 35% on the day.

Software as a whole, though, staging a comeback. SAS names, Salesforce, ServiceNow rebounding, as a data infrastructure player Snowflake, Datadog, on a positive note from Morgan Stanley, it follows what has been

a tough couple weeks for the sector in which Anthropics' latest releases have amplified those broader AI displacement fears, and those concerns have prompted a dramatic pullback in some of the biggest names in the sector, Jeffries pointing out this week that just 12 months ago, software was among

the largest S&P 500 industry groups. Today, it's the fourth after being overtaken by media and entertainment. So, of course, Melissa, we'll be watching to see if this continued rally gains conviction. Yeah, Seema, thanks. Seema Modi. Now let's get the latest from the White House's market's move on every social media post from the president. Amon Javers is live at the White House for us. Amen. Hey there, Melissa. We are now six hours into the U.S. block. of Iranian ports. And to our knowledge at least, this blockade has not been tested,

and the U.S. Navy has not had to interdict any ships at sea. I asked the White House what legal authority the U.S. Navy would have to seize any third-party vessels and for an explanation of why such a seizure wouldn't simply be a crime. A White House official promised a written response to that and cited Article 2 of the U.S. Constitution, which, among other things, of course, makes the president, the commander-in-chief of the American military. And according to Iranian state media, the Chinese defense minister, Dong Jun, issued a statement asserting Chinese right of transit this afternoon through the strait, saying, we have trade and energy agreements with Iran, we expect others not to interfere in our affairs, adding that the strait

of Hormuz remains open to China. President Trump spoke to reporters today and laid out his rationale for this blockade. Here's what he said. We have a blockade. They're doing no business. I didn't like seeing boats come out if they were doing business with Iran, but if there weren't, no boats came out. So now Iran is doing absolutely no business, and we're going to keep it that way very easily. And Melissa, what we know from U.S. Central Command is that the blockade will involve all Iranian ports and will be enforced impartially, they say, against vessels of all nations.

So the big open question here is what happens if a Chinese vessel tries to transit the strait at a time when the Chinese say the strait is open to all vessels from China. And the United States says that there's a blockade in effect, Melissa. Well, this should be an interesting backdrop for a potential meeting with President Xi aiming. Is there any anticipations to, you know, how they will deal with this? They did have said that China does have a large stockpile. So it's possible that they don't need any oil from there anyway right now. Yeah, that's one possibility. We don't know how the meeting is going to go off or not go off at this point.

They've already postponed it once. They say that it is on the schedule now for the month of May, and so we'll wait to see whether that in fact happens. But, you know, this is a superpower flashpoint, potentially, between the United States and China and the Strait of Hormuz, as each power jockeys for position there. The Chinese embassy here in Washington issued a statement that sent it to me earlier today. fairly anodyne, really not saying much of anything.

That statement that you saw there from the defense minister was sort of as provocative as we've seen the Chinese be here by saying that they have the right to transit. We'll see if they try it, and we'll see what the U.S. Navy does if they do. Amen, thank you. Amon Javis from the White House. Our next guest says a structural bull market

is still intact with new highs ahead, says this earning season today will be excellent. Joining us now is Evercore ISI Senior Managing Director, Julian Emanuel. Julian, great to have you here on set with us. So where we are in the markets is astonishing if you think about the fact that we are at the level we were at when the war started. How do you interpret that? It doesn't mean the markets are strong at this point. I mean, it's unbelievable, really.

It is breathtaking, particularly going back to the low on March the 30th, which by a lot of measures, the whoosh off of that bottom, has been among the strongest we've seen in almost 40 years. I think it comes down to three things. First off, as you said, earnings are going to be really good. We're below consensus at 11% growth on the year. Consensus is probably a bit too high. It's 17%. But if the Twain meets, the history of double-digit earning growth for stocks is very, very positive. The second is hedging.

Frankly, in many years of doing this, I have no recollection of hedging positions bearish stocks, bearish credit, bearish bonds, bullish oil, cumulatively, just off the charts. Essentially, we were saying last week that on a one to ten scale, clients were hedged on an 11. And what we've seen in the last three or four days, it's still eight and a half. And frankly, it is going to be subject to further unwind. And then, of course, the third thing is oil. The fact is, with all of this to and fro, the market. is looking at sort of July pricing, which is comfortably below $90, which is a level that

stocks can live with. Stocks can live with that, but it's interesting to hear the consumers might have to live with higher energy prices for much longer and how will they deal with that. I mean, if Trump is saying those gas prices could stay elevated through the midterms, that's the end of the year here. And at what point does that then have an impact on your view of how the consumer does, how the stock market does? Well, that may be a bit of narrative.

expectation shaping on the part of the president. Look, if this is the middle of the summer and we are above $4 a gallon and gasoline, it will impact the economy and it will impact the stock market, which is why, you know, this belief in sort of gently falling oil prices is as profound as it is as a reason to own stocks. But there's no question about the fact that that that will be a challenge, certainly out to Memorial Day, definitely by the 4th of July. There's obviously a lot of churn, even though the headline number on the indices basically flat from when we started the war. And you came up with an interesting list, perfection amid chaos. I think it's what is called. A lot of those are the biggest stocks in the stock market,

a lot of the MAG seven names. That's how you say we should position during this time of uncertainty. So if you think about it, right, right? We observe that the market is rising. Last week, there is the incredible momentum over anti-momentum, which is software, having reversed the prior several weeks. And then today, it flipped around again with software going incredibly strong. From our point of view, investors in this season of uncertainty are going to prefer certainty. And to us, that's the perfection of double beats on earnings and revenue for eight consecutive quarters. And it just so happens. A lot of that is in technology where when you, look at multiples across the tech space, they're trading at pandemic-type lows. That to us is

value. Let's say we wave a magic wand. The war is over tomorrow. Do the concerns that haunted the markets prior to the war come back in a big way? Do they come back to the forefront? I'm asking because a lot of these perfection amid chaos names, they are names that would be hit by a bearish AI narrative. So in our mind, it's almost, as maybe you're alluding, a good thing that our focus has been taken off of those concerns. But if you look at the capital markets and you see the deals in the AI space and in the semi space over the last week and a half, it tells you that the market is just working through these as issues.

And in our mind, we actually don't want to see that wall of worry decline too much because that's fuel for further upside. Julian, it's always good to see you. Thank you. Julian Emmanuel. Let's turn out to the oil market. That close off the highs after hitting $105 a barrel. Pippa Stevens has a look at today's moves. Pippa.

Hey, Melissa, oil is settling at $99 after earlier trading as high as 105-63. Now, President Trump has said the U.S. doesn't need the trade of Hormuz since we are the largest oil producer and a net energy exporter. But while the U.S. is insulated to a certain degree, we are not immune to global prices. And we still rely on imports for key markets and products, including oil itself. We export about 4 million barrels per day of sweet domestic shale, an import about 6. 0.2 million barrels per day of heavy sour crude. The majority of that comes from Canada and Mexico, but about 8% is from the Middle East. And on the product side, the East and West Coasts are most exposed with gasoline coming from countries, including South Korea, which has implemented export

restrictions. Now, front month, Brent, trading right around $98, but dated Brent or oil for immediate delivery was at 132.74 today, that's according to S&P Global Energy. So a roughly $35 premium, JPMorgan, saying that signs are emerging. The system may be coming under increasing strain. Melissa? Pippa, thanks. Pippa Stevens. So what happens to oil prices from here as the U.S. blockade remains in place for an extended period of time? Joining us now, Halima Croft from RBC Capital Markets. Halima, great to see you.

Thank you for having me. You lay out a couple scenarios in this sort of ultimatum situation that the president has laid out, no enrich uranium, basically. both scenarios seem to point to higher oil prices. Right. I mean, the question is, will the White House find a way to reach a deal with Iran by walking back the zero enrichment demand? I mean, that is what has blocked any negotiations moving forward to a deal throughout both of his presidency. So the big question is, are we any closure to a deal now than we were when this ceasefire started? And President Trump has been very, very good at moving market sentiment by saying Iran wants to come to the table,

this war is going to end soon. But he has been saying this since the start of the war, and the market continues to believe it. Meanwhile, we continue to have the largest physical supply disruption in history. So at what point a market participants start to think about a longer-duration war if he can't close the deal with Iran? Basically, I mean, President Trump can either say, you know what, we're out of here, or he can amp it up, right? In both scenarios are not good ones. which one would you position for? I mean, again, if he says we're out of here, that leaves Iran in charge of essentially a toll booth,

deciding who comes through this trade of Hormuzer or not. And that leads to a situation where we're not going to get a full return of barrels to the market. Now, we can try to escalate to try to reopen the strait. That's going to involve a significant surge of U.S. troops, potentially to the theater, an extended campaign, or you can try to get a deal. And the challenge is if we have to go forward with a blockade to try to change Iran's calculation, A, that could mean an additional 1.8 million barrels off the market because we'd be stopping all Iranian barrels from reaching key markets like China and India. But at the same time, Iran could respond by further retaliations against neighboring oil producers.

So if he does not close the deal in terms of a negotiated reopening of the straits, you're either looking at the Tehran Toalbooth staying in operation, or an escalation that leads to more supply outages in the Middle East. So I know the market wants to be optimistic at this is ending soon, but if he can't close the deal, if we can't sort of move the needle on the issue of enrichment, we have to brace for further escalation and further disruption. Can you play out the game here in terms of blockading the strait and not allowing Iranian oil to reach China ahead of a high-stakes meeting with President Xi next month?

I mean, Amin Davers laid this at. just so well. I mean, the question is, are we really going to start interdicting ships bound for China? I mean, that raises the issue of a high-stakes confrontation between two superpowers. The other issue simply is, what does that mean to supply outage? I got to interview Fatibiril today, IEA had, and he said currently we have 13. Yeah. Sorry, in the draft. We just want to show the spider rock advisors ringing the CBO bell there for the end to trading, official trading in Chicago.

That's a regular trading day for options, by the way. Halima, sorry to interrupt. We were talking about China and pulling China into this whole thing. Yes, I mean, the question is if we pull China in, the question is how many more barrels are going to be off the market? What does this mean for the status of our negotiations on China on a whole host of other economic issues? But again, Fatiburro, IEA executive director today said basically 13 million barrels are off the market currently. Are we prepared to add to that volume? that will be a key question. And last thing I'll say is around 80 energy facilities have apparently

been damaged. And Fatiburro said one-third is severely damaged and could take two years to come back to operation. Do you think China would involve itself in the war at all in any way to make things worse? I mean, threatening their supply of oil, granted they probably have a very good reserve still that they're working off of. So it doesn't really affect them quite yet. but eventually it will. I mean, Melissa, this is a great question because we've always said that China exercised prudent risk management going into this war. They have been buying aggressively for the strategic stockpiles in advance of this conflict. They were the big buyer of the SPR release, remember the 400 million barrel coordinated IEA release.

China was a big buyer and then put export restrictions in place. So China is really trying to preserve a stockpile to see through this conflict. The other question is, are they benefiting from the fact that the United States now has to move military assets that were in Asia for the potential defense of Taiwan to the Middle East? So, again, they're real questions about how much pain China is suffering, and are they getting some strategic advantage from this war? Halima, thanks. Always good to talk with you. Halema Croft. Well, financials, the best sector in the S&P 500 today.

That is despite a decline in Goldman Sachs following its results. Goldman, the only stock in the group, in fact, finishing in the red. Several more big banks report tomorrow. We'll get you ready for those reports next on closing bell overtime, live from the NASDAQ market site. Welcome back, Goldman Sachs, ending the day lowered down about 2% following its earnings. While it did report better than expected top line numbers and record equities trading fixed income operations revenue fell, nearly 10%. The stock has been on a tear in the past year, up 80%. So what can Goldman's numbers tell?

us about what we may hear from the rest of the sector reporting this week. With us now to discuss Sparkley's analyst Jason Goldberg. Jason, great to have you with us. Thank you. It was interesting to see the reaction because immediately it was down as much as 5 percent, and that's just basically on the thick miss. How would you characterize the number overall, though? Yeah, I think it's a solid quarter. I mean, trading revenues may be a little bit lighter than people expected. It seemed like that a particularly tough quarter in interest rate trading relative to expectations. But by and large, as you mentioned, record trading quarter for equities, investment banking. fees posted, I think, their best quarter in almost four years. And the outlook remains constructive.

Constructive, although Solomon on the call did talk about sentiment throughout the quarter getting sort of worse as the war dragged on. I'm wondering how you think, how you interpret that, because you know, if that is the case and people are getting a little bit more cautious, then, you know, a lot of the activity in the markets will sort of come to a slowdown. Yeah, and I mean, you did see pipelines maybe come down a touch in the quarter, but as we look out for the rest of the year and even into next, we think the setup for just overall corporate M&A is there. I mean, I think corporates see this window to get strategic activity done with the current administration, which appears much more open to transactions. So I do think you'll see a continued strength in M&A. And then

there's a lot of large IPOs coming down the pipe. And I think, you know, the markets, while a bit choppy of late, are still, you know, certainly higher than they were last year. And I think there's room to get those deals done as well. How do you interpret Goldman trading lower today, but the rest of the group basically trading higher, the ones that are reporting tomorrow morning, training higher? I think just general expectations, I think that trading results will be better from the companies we hear from tomorrow.

We get JPMorgan and Citigroup in particular, where both have kind of pointed to something closer to mid-teens, year-of-year growth in trading revenues, as well as, you know, strengthen investment banking fees. And those are also more traditional banks. So, I mean, the Goldman's not the best comparable. You did see strong growth in loans, strong growth in deposits, as well as, you know,

controlled costs. follow through to the other banks as well. Yeah, and while there are those sort of common themes, each one is really an individual story in terms of why it's moved. I mean, city has really been the turnaround play within the banks. How much left is there for Jane Fraser to do there in terms of what she can do and the impact on the stock price? Yeah, no, there's certainly, I think, more to go. You know, despite the movement they've done, there'll still be in a, you know, 1011 percent, a 10, 11 percent ROTC for this year, return on tangible common equity. And there's room to push that to mid-teen. So as far as she's commoner of five years in

the job, you know, there's probably another good five years momentum behind it. Wells Fargo could be free to do some acquisitions, and is that what you're anticipating, and do you foresee that happening? I mean, I would think that if that were to happen, it would happen under this administration, to your point before. Yeah, we'll see. You know, they came off a seven-year asset cap last year during the span where they were basically, did not grow the company, the industry grew by more than 40%. So there's a lot of pent-up organic growth. We think that you begin to come to shine through. And then with respect to acquisitions, we'll see what comes up.

We do expect an overall pickup and bank consolidation. Over the next few years, you saw a little bit of the pickup since the middle of last year, three or the last four biggest deals we've seen in the last four years have gotten announced recently. And we do think you'll see more throughout the group. The commentary on private credit has been interesting. It was interesting to hear what David Solomon said in terms of its loans outstanding to various private credit firms, but also its own funds. and it has seen some redemption requests almost to the limit.

And then also its loan book is diversified, it says. But at some point, I mean, what are you sort of listening for in the earnings to come over the coming days? Listen, for the industry overall, credit quality has been relatively stable for the last eight, nine quarters. You know, charges have been basically flat. And even our expectation this quarter is to kind of see that continued stability. You know, there are some bumps in the road that we were certainly being mindful of. But in terms of banks kind of lending into private equity, a lot of those credits tend to be very well secured, very senior in the structure. And, you know, we just don't foresee any big issues near term.

Okay. Jason, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We've got a news alert for you, shares of Dell and HP, following in extended trading after Nvidia denied a report that we told you about earlier today that the chip giant was looking to acquire a large PC-oriented company. Invidia telling CNBC in a statement that the media report is false. Invadia is not engaged in discussions to acquire any PC maker.

You see Dell down by about 3% right now. HP also down 3%. Well, Sandus has been one of the hottest stocks in the market over the past year, up 2800%. Intel has been one of the hottest stocks over the past month, up more than 40%. Both those names continuing their winning ways today. More on those moves coming up. Shares of Sandisk jumping 12% today, now of 30% in a week. The stock is being added to the NASAC 100, replacing Atlassian.

means index fund managers who tracked the NASDAQ 100, including the QQQ, will have to buy Sandisk and dump Atlassian. Analysts scrambling to keep up with the stock. Today, Citigroup boosting its price target to 980 a share. Sandisks spun out of Western Digital a little more than a year ago at around $35 a share. Saying with technology, check out the monster run in Intel, one of the top S&P 500 performers again today, up almost 5%. The stock has gained nearly 50%, 50%, 50% in April.

That would be its best monthly performance. since 1987, and the stock added more than $100 billion in market value in the past eight trading days. Many in the street, though, have been caught flat-footed. Only 10 buy ratings out of 50 analysts covering the stock, according to facts that joining us now is Cody Acree, analysts at the benchmark company. He upgraded Intel to a buy. Back in September, the stock has more than doubled since then. $76 price target is one of the street's highest, Cody. Nice to be on the right side of this one, when a lot of your peers have been flat-footed on the stock move.

like how you break down the risk, because there's been a lot of a battery of headlines, positive headlines surrounding Intel. You break it down into what is realistic near term and what is sort of the symbolic, the realistic being Google. And so what is the impact? How do you quantify that impact in the near medium term of the Google partnership on Intel? Well, I think the Google partnership just solidifies what we've been hearing really across the AI Data Center complex with CPUs taking a much stronger position, much more important role in data center traffic management, looking at it as an overall manager of inference traffic, now not just about GPUs, but CPUs really reinforcing that

central AI theme. And the Google relationship, it just shows that Google is recommitting to X-86 as a real heavy lifting processing engine. In addition to their TPUs and their use of AMD, they're recommitting to X-86 for a long term. And then also developing, co-developing these IPUs with Intel for traffic offload, which just lessens the data center workloads on the CPU, And that's the business that they then can resell to the rest of the industry. There had been a lot of concerns about it's 18A and its ability to bring that to market,

bring that to commercialization. And here you say that being part of the tariff have really validates the fact that it's closer, despite all the worries. Yeah, Melissa, I think you're right. It's closer. And validation maybe is a bit of a strong word yet. but I think it is a tacit indication that there is some commercial validity to Intel becoming a good second source to Taiwan Semi at the leading edge of the foundry industry.

The 18A process had to reach internal manufacturing yields. I think that's been done. They're now producing their desktop processors and just beginning to produce their server processors in Arizona. And I think that those yields are now attracting external interest. And this tariffab is an indication of that. It would have been nice to see some financials and some CAPEX commitment details. But I think those are yet to come.

But I think from an industry standpoint, this shows that others can step in and show some interest to Intel in addition to what we've seen from TerraFab. Yeah. The last bit of news that sort of completes this trifecta. of positive headlines is regaining its control of the Ireland fab from the Apollo repurchasing that state that Apollo had had owned. I'm wondering, Cody, because it seems like Wall Street, you excluded, mostly hold on the stock, sort of a show-me stock. And I would imagine investors feel the same way or are positioned in that way.

How much more upside do you think there is in the stock, given that's probably it's underowned versus historical measures? Yeah, I think this has been a long-term turnaround. one that we were hesitant to get behind up until September of last year. But I think that the confluence of Lip Butan's strategies have now started to build momentum. He is turning the company around technically. They now have products that are starting to become more competitive with AMD. I think they'll have to get through their server launch before they can really start to

stem some of the market share losses to AMD in the server side. But I think those strides are being made. And then as you mentioned, the Ireland Fab, taking that just shows the demand strength that they're seeing in CPUs for even their legacy technologies where they've said they're sold out. They're living hand to mouth on anything they can produce is going out the door. And so it all speaks well to Intel's demand side from AI, for CPUs, for desktops, and for servers and then with their foundry business now starting to show some momentum, I think the signs are pointing in the right direction for Intel to push at least well into the 70s. We now have a $76 target price. And with estimates continuing to go up as things start to

materialize, I think that could carry the stock even higher. Yeah. And one last question. We just got news from Nvidia that it is denying all the media reports about it possibly being interested in buying Dell. We saw shares of Dell as well as HP. go down. In your view, do you think that it makes sense for any of the chipmakers to be looking at a Dell or an HP? I don't. I think that most of the chipmakers today, especially those that have AI leverage, are in a pretty sweet spot from a margin and profitability standpoint. Cash flows are extreme demand is well outstripping supply and to step into something as low margin and highly volatile and saturated as the PC industry would definitely dilute margins, dilute profitability,

and dilute their growth trajectory. And I'm not sure what it would bring to the table for somebody like an Nvidia to internalize something as unfortunately as commoditized as PCs have become. Cody, thank you. Nice to see you. Cody, A.Korea, Benchmark. Time for CNBC News Update with Julia Borson. Hi, Julia. Hi, Melissa. The man accused of throwing a Molotov cocktail, the home of Open AI founder Sam Altman, was against AI and had a list of other tech executives. That's according to court documents seen by the Associated Press. Authorities spent several hours at the suspect's Texas home today, and according to those court documents, the suspect discussed the purported risk AI poses to humanity. Federal Reserve Chair nominee

Kevin Warsh has submitted his financial disclosures paperwork to the Senate, according to two people familiar with the matter. That's a key hurdle in getting his confirmation hearing scheduled, which remains in flux as Senator Tom Tillis has vowed to block the appointment until a federal criminal probe into the current chair Jerome Powell is resolved. And according to a new study published in a journal of American medicine forum, AI chatbots are misdiagnosing over 80% of early medical cases, particularly when faced with incomplete information. The study found that large language models struggle to provide a range of possible diagnoses nearing in on a cause too quickly. Melissa, I know all of us turn to our phones to get some answers when we have a question.

I guess not anymore. Julia, thank you. Julie Borsden. Revolution medicine is jumping 40% today on success for a key drug. Does that make it a prime takeover target for Big Pharma? We'll discuss that next on closing bell overtime. Welcome back to closing bail overtime. Live from the NASAC market site, markets closing near the highs of the day. As President Trump says Iran wants to make a deal, the Dow up 300 points, the S&P 500 up 1%. The NASDAQ up for the ninth straight day, a 1 and a half percent gain for the Russell. The S&P 500 closing today at 6886.

That is eight points higher than where it closed on February 27th. That's before the Iran War started and up eight and a half percent from the closing glow, which is March 30th. Well, shares of biotech revolution medicine soaring today after announcing a successful phase three trial of its experimental pancreatic cancer drug. Angelica Peebles has the details on this one. Angelica. Hey, Melissa, well, RevMed's pill, almost doubling how long people lived, giving them six and a half months more than standard chemotherapy. Doctors saying that they've never seen data like this for pancreatic cancer. This is a really aggressive cancer, and one of the doctors who was involved in the trial getting choked up multiple times when talking.

talking about these results. For pancreatic cancer patients, this is truly important because there has been disappointment after disappointment after disappointed. I have taken part in more negative trials that I can care to remember. But to have this trial which is positive and positive to this extent is truly, I think it's a game changer. Another doctor who wasn't involved in this trial said that he's incredibly excited that REBMed's pill called Diraxon RASib could become a foundation that's used in combination with other

drugs. Rev meds already testing some of those possibilities, and it's also testing the drug for other RAS mutated cancers like lung and colorectal. So there's a lot more on the horizon for this drug, Melissa. Angelica, thanks, Angelica Peebles. So does today's news reopen the door for potential takeover of rev meds, which had been in talks with Merck earlier this year. 2026 has already been a good year for biotech M&A with 14 deals worth at least $500 million in the first quarter alone. Joining us now is Muzhou Securities Health Care Sector Specialist, Jared Holes. Jared, Jared, great to have you with us. Thanks, Melissa.

Appreciate it. There were reports earlier that it was not just Merck, but it was also Abby that was interested in RevMed, and now I'm sure many more. But the price tag will be much higher. So from the RevMed perspective, do they have to sell? because they do have an agreement for funding with royalty pharma, and who would want to buy them at this new higher price? Yeah, they've got that funding. I think they're in the market tonight as well with another financing just to sort of shore up the balance sheet. The company is in a really good position. It certainly doesn't have to sell. I mean, I think there are a lot of, you know, a lot of companies in biotech that can, you know, attempt to figure it out on their own.

The drug looks very solid. Obviously, the stock has been great. Today's data notwithstanding. I think we just got some, just a further reminder of the power of this drug. It could get acquired. You could see a Merck come back to the table. You could see AbbV. It's been a while since they did a big deal, actually. But not saying that it has to happen at all. I see in the notes, Amgen, Bristol, J&J, even Novo could be buyers. How do you come up? at this sort of potential buyers list? I mean, that sort of list is more broad-based. I'm not sure that any of those would be in the market for revolution necessarily. And as you alluded to, it's a big price tag. I mean, this is over a $25 billion company today. So you would have to think it's $30 billion plus in a takeout with any premium. But certainly, if there are strategics, large-cap pharma companies that are compelled,

that think this, you know, drug. And I think, you know, our firm and others think this is a $5, $7, $7, $8 billion drug just in pancreatic that it would exclude other indications in oncology, then the numbers actually do work. It would just be a very big deal in dollars. So as you mentioned before, it has been a very strong year for M&A, and that is really fueled by pharma giants needing to do deals in order to bolster the pipeline. Who is the most desperate at this point, Jared? I don't know if any of them are desperate today. I think, you know, when I sort of look at, you know, the landscape, big picture, I think Abbe is a buyer, probably a buyer. I think they all are to some extent. I mean, we've seen Pfizer, Lily, and Merck pretty active, among others. But I think Abbey, Amgen, and then Novo keeps on talking about, you know, their desire to continue to add assets and obesity.

just given the complexity and the competitive nature of that market. But I think when you look across the board, I think everyone's probably a buyer to some extent. Again, there have been a lot of deals, and companies like Merck might have their plateful over the near term. But I think they're all fairly susceptible. We just showed, you know, a wall, basically, of all the recent deals. And all the recent deals have been sub-10 billion dollars. And I'm wondering if you think that is probably going to be the common way for, for big, you know, pharma companies to sort of add to their pipelines, little sort of tuck-in

acquisitions relative to their market cap size versus a big transformative one. Yeah, definitely. I mean, that's the sweet spot. When you look at publicly traded biotech, there aren't that many companies that have market caps in excess of $10 billion. I think it's a dozen, maybe a little bit more. So I think when you look at, you know, where you consider, you know, the denominator and the targets, most of them are in that $2 to $5 billion range roughly. And so that's why I think you're seeing deals in that vicinity. You know, we could be, you know, setting the stage for bigger deals. I mean, we've talked about In Zemet a bunch of times.

They're still out there. That could be had. That would probably be north of a $40 billion deal, but it wouldn't shock me. I mean, the players are obviously much bigger than that. But I think that's why you're seeing deals in that $5 billion range because of, you know, where the industry is. Jared, great to speak with you. Thank you. Thank you.

William Sonoma shares down roughly 8% since hitting a new high in February. And Goldman Sachs says investors should buy the stock on that weakness. Up next, Fast Money's Tim Seymour will tell us how he is trading this retailer. Welcome back to overtime. Retail stocks have suffered some losses since the start of the Iran war. But Goldman Sachs is betting on one name amid this market volatility. The firm is upgrading William Sonoma to a buy from a neutral, citing its strong brand, portfolio and the potential for sales, excuse me, sales growth acceleration, but is now the time to get into retail names? Now the time to get into William Sonoma. Joining us now is Tim Seymour

C-C-I-O at Seymour Asset Management and, of course, a fast money trader, Tim. Good to see you. I'm Melissa Lee. Hello. Good to see you. It seems like a weird time to be upgrading William Sonoma at a time when the consumer might be under duress or a little bit more, you know, stress. And home furnishings in the housing market is hardly in a sweet spot. In fact, a lot of times Williams Sonoma finds itself as a major wading in the XHB and has slid itself down. I understand what Goldman's doing here. This is a high-quality name.

There's a handful of brands under the WSM. Pottery Barn actually has been weaker. There's been some concern that there's been a heavy promotional environment there. What Goldman, I think, is doing is they're saying a stock that's not cheap to itself and probably trades at a premium to the peer group is the place that's going to see at a time when

investors are more cautious. It makes sense. It's a high-quality name. I think at 30 to 40 times more expensive than it's five and 10 year averages, I'm not sure why I'm buying it expensive here. I also think there's a margin headwind. You can't tell me tariffs aren't an overhang on margins, especially in home furnishings. Occupancy costs apparently have been a bit of a headwind.

Incredibly well run, maybe a resurgence in the Dutch oven. I don't know, but you never know. It's a very popular item. Yes, especially in the Seymour household. Yeah, of course. The other side of this upgrade was a downgrade of Best Buy, We play a game called Would You Rather on Fast Money. And if I said, Would You Rather Williams-Sembaugh or Best Buy?

Best Buy, to me, at least, it seems a little bit more defensive in terms of consumer spending than a Williams-Sonoma. Because if you needed a laptop or if there's an upgrade cycle or anything like that with phones, you're going to buy that. I would be, yes. So I agree with you. I'd be the other way in Goldman on this trade. And so I would rather buy Best Buy Sell Williams-Sonoma. You have a stock also, five-and-ten year, kind of 20 to 25 percent cheap. It's got a 12% free cash flow yield, pays almost a 6% div.

It's at five-year support, and that's a scary-looking chart. And I do think I don't love discretionary here, but I agree. I think it's more cyclical tied to a mobile phone upgrade cycle. TVs, I don't know what the next exciting TV is going to be going on in your house, but you can be sure it's going to happen. And so I like Best Buy over Williamson over here. I'm sorry, Goldman, great calls, but I think I'd be the other way. Tim, I'll see you on fast.

See you on top of the hour, Tim Seymour. Up next, we'll break down the food price fight between grocers and restaurants and now $4 gasoline is impacting the growing divide and food spending. As we head to break, check out some notable names in the food industry hitting 52-week lows today. ConAgar, General Mills, James Smucker, and Campbell's. Posing Bell Overtime, live from the NASAC market site. Be right back. Welcome back to overtime.

Food prices following in last month's CPI, but restaurant prices, they keep rising. Brandon Gomez looks now at how that's giving grocers an edge over restaurant companies. Brandon. Hey, Melissa. Yeah, that's right. CPI sent a clear signal for the food space. It's getting cheaper to eat at home and even more expensive to eat out. Grocery prices fell in March. It declines across meat, dairy, eggs, and cereal. But at the same time, restaurant prices rose. And that widening gap matters because it creates a real incentive for consumers to trade down, which is typically a positive for grocers like Croger, Albertson's, Walmart, and Costco. But on the flip side, restaurants are facing a tougher setup. Analysts telling me fast casual names like McDonald's and restaurant brands are at risk of losing pricing power if consumers start pulling back.

Now, grocers want to keep that edge, but add in surging gas prices you were talking about at the top of the hour. That's a direct hit to discretionary income and tends to show up with a lag in dining and overall food spending. Now, look at this chart from Bank of America. Spending data shows in the two previous periods when gasoline spending increased, spending on food and groceries fell. So the big takeaway here, Melissa, is that groceries side of relief on Friday, but this is a broader shift in spending.

And right now is when that shift historically starts. If food prices overall are declining, Brandon, then what is the component on the restaurant side that is increasing? So for a lot of the companies, an analyst that I've spoken to and some of the reporting I've done, they've brought up the fact that you have to also factor in that gasoline, right? A lot of these companies do have delivery services in the modern world where we're living in Uber Eats and seamless and Grubhub and DoorDash. And so you may actually see those factors increase as well, which may be dissuading companies from those customers,

think the dominoes, the Papa Johns, the Pizza Huts that actually have those delivery services. And then, yes, we'll start to see long-term how those input costs on food prices is actually impacting the consumer and what they spend on their last-minute receipts. Brandon, thanks. Brandon Gomez.

Let's get you set up with tomorrow's trade today. Big bank earnings will keep rolling out when J.P. Morgan, City Group, Wells Fargo, and Black Rock all reports. and do not miss a first on CNBC interview with BlackRock Chairman and CEO Larry Fank tomorrow, 930 a.m. on squawk on the streets, will be a very big day. We'll see how the continuation in terms of Goldman Sachs is trading today goes into the bank reports we're seeing tomorrow. On the economic front, by the way, we'll be closely watching the March producer price index PPI seen increasing by 1.1% month on month. A jump from February is 0.7% increase. All right. Big day tomorrow. Fast money starts right after this break.

Thank you.